


want anybody else but you

by falterth



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Multi, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 04:52:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14561271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falterth/pseuds/falterth
Summary: Naruto is fifteen years old, and he is a new chūnin, and his teammates stand beside him on top of the head of the Yondaime Hokage, and they watch color bleed into and out of the sky and it's breaths taken in the middle of the night, it's the rise and fall of Sakura's chest as she draws in love and exhales peace, it's the slow, lazy blink of Sasuke's eyes when he's too sleepy to respond to anyone properly.





	want anybody else but you

**Author's Note:**

> directly inspired by coldplay's [magic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ibdhm4Xog) (read: listened to on loop while writing)

Naruto is twelve years old, a fresh genin, and his cheek stings from where Sakura punched him.  
  
If he keeps up like this, he's going to fall in love. 

 

Naruto-baka, she calls him, and it hurts, it hurts because he's tried so hard to get her to love him and she still calls him that, but her laugh when she says it sounds like bells chiming against each other, irregular but filling, and Naruto's chest feels like it's going to burst.  
  
So he gives her a grin and he throws her a peace sign and he doesn't even try to dodge the punch that comes sailing his way.

 

Sakura is tapping her foot against the ground. Playing with a hair tie. It snaps, snaps, snaps, thrums with the beat of Naruto's heart because Sakura's fingers are so slender and her hands so soft but he _knows_ what kind of punch she packs and that makes it even better.  
  
He understands why she likes Sasuke. He doesn't like it, but he understands. So when Sakura is finished using him as a punching bag and they can both laugh off their problems with each other, and she gushes about Sasuke, he leans back and folds his arms underneath his head and smiles for her because her words are like magic.

  

They're sitting next to each other. Naruto and Sasuke, that is.  
  
The day is silent but Naruto feels like there is so much noise in his ears. Static. And their hands are so close to each other, hands that throw shuriken and reach out and gesture, hands that grip arms tightly when they are crossed over chests, hands that thread through frustrated hair.  
  
Sasuke is warm. Naruto's not even touching him because that's stupid, and Sasuke is stupid and Naruto forgets why he's even here in the first place, and then he kind of remembers, remembers a vague nebulous feeling in his chest that makes him want to cry and then he stuffs his knuckles in his mouth so that he doesn't talk and fuck up the atmosphere.  
  
Naruto feels lightheaded. Sasuke does that to him, sometimes. His stomach is flip-flopping over and over again. He wonders if Sakura will show up soon and save him from this weird, fragile emotion that is chipping away at its shell.  
  
He feels something breaking inside of him and his vocal chords scream at him because he wants to talk.  
  
He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't.  
  
It is silent until Sakura shows up, and takes one look at them, and scoffs ( _Honestly,_ she says. _Boys._ ) and then shoves Naruto to the end of the bench so that she can sit in between them.  
  
Naruto is less confused than he wants to be.

 

It's raining but they're outside looking for that damnable cat anyway.  
  
It's too quiet, but then again, it's been quiet recently.  
  
He and Sakura and Sasuke are crouched underneath a tree and he swears the heavens are singing to him in short, sweet bursts that tug on something deep inside of him and he feels like he's waking up even though everything is silent except for the deep-cooing birds and the drip of rain on leaves.  
  
Naruto doesn't _want_ this but he _needs_ it because it's family. He needs it because it's something to protect, it's words across his chest and the warning of tears in his eyes and it's _raining._  
  
Raining and he is crouched underneath a tree with his teammates trying to catch a cat that shouldn't even be outside today.

  

The names snap like rice crackers.  
  
Sa-ku-ra.  
  
Sa-su-ke.  
  
They talk to him about team and family and pillars that will never _ever_ break down, so he becomes one too, made of marble and looking for all the world like he has finally found home.

 

Naruto is thirteen years old, a genin who wants to become Hokage, and hot love boils in his chest when he sees Sasuke heading toward the abandoned Uchiha compound, figure small and lonely and looking like he wants someone to call out to him and offer to let him stay the night.  
  
So he does. Naruto does, and his throat is hoarse from yelling during training but it’s all right, the sound reaches his ears anyway and the hope on Sasuke’s face makes it all _worth it._

 

Sasuke's taijutsu is light, fleeting, and quick, and it always waits for him. Sakura's is weak, so weak, and Naruto wants to help her get strong. It could be firm and solid and would box him in if she had the strength to do so, and he wants to be boxed in by her. He never wants her to let him go.

 

Sakura and Sasuke are close. They sit next to each other voluntarily. Naruto feels like he could sit on the sidelines and watch them forever, if only they would let him.

 

When Sasuke tells him and Sakura that he thought about going to Orochimaru, something that is ugly and dark and smooth rises inside Naruto's chest like the tide, like waves lapping at his insides. Sasuke tells them that he thought about going and being strong by _himself,_ and it was only when he realized that he was strong with other people too that he stopped.  
  
That he had two other people to help him, and he's—not really good at saying these kinds of things, but _would_ they help him?  
  
And the small, broken _please_  tacked hastily onto the end of it is enough to have Naruto and Sakura both surging forward to embrace him, to ensnare him in their arms and never let him out because he's _theirs,_ theirs and nobody can take him away from them.  
  
Naruto and Sakura promise to become strong with him. Because there is a goddess singing in their ears and telling them that this is it, this is the thing that they've been waiting for, this is the final piece of the puzzle, now go and _be strong._  
  
The push is gentle.  
  
The stumble is almost unnoticeable.  
  
The collision is enough to change their lives.

 

Naruto is fifteen years old, and he is a new chūnin, and his teammates stand beside him on top of the head of the Yondaime Hokage, and they watch color bleed into and out of the sky and it's breaths taken in the middle of the night, it's the rise and fall of Sakura's chest as she draws in love and exhales peace, it's the slow, lazy blink of Sasuke's eyes when he's too sleepy to respond to anyone properly.  
  
It's Konoha.  
  
It's home.

  

Naruto is seventeen years old, a jōnin, and when he sleeps next to Sakura and Sasuke at night he feels not like one but like he is one third, one part of something beautiful, something that is greater than the sum of its parts, and if they ever went away he would never be whole again.  
  
Naruto is seventeen years old. He wants to become Hokage, and he wants this stupid war to end so that he can finally see the end of the bloodshed.  
  
Naruto is seventeen years old, and he went and fell in love with them, and when he holds their hands at night he thinks he believes in magic.


End file.
